Imagine the Scene

McIntyre’s Farm

The earliest sources on this raid differ on major details. This page follows an 1825 newspaper article⁴ for the basic story, adding details from other sources. 

Take the loop trail from the right side of the parking lot. Stop where the trail begins to curve left, away from Beatties Ford Road. Turn left to face across the park. The McIntyre farmhouse was diagonally to your left, in front of or across the trail on the far side.⁵

Robert Kerr probably built a farmhouse here around 1746. “The house… was 20 by 26 feet, built of hand-cut, squared logs of hard pine, with saddle-notched (interlocking) corners and caulked with clay.” It has doors on the front and back—right and left sides in your view—opposite each other for airflow. But there is only one window, near the point of the roof on the near side. A chimney is on the other end.⁶ The barn is somewhere in the area of the modern parking lot.

Kerr’s daughter married Frances Bradley in the house. So did another (unnamed) daughter and William McIntyre, who had moved to the area in the 1760s. They inherited the 440-acre farm.

Look to your left up Beatties Ford Road.

The modern road follows the same route as the one at the time, first a Native American trading path,⁷ leading to Beattie’s Ford across the Catawba River (now under Lake Norman). Near here, the Patriots shadowing the foragers pick up a small stream running at the bottom of the slope beyond the farmhouse.

The McIntyre family is here, including six-year-old Isaac, when the Tories arrive up the road. They likely take refuge in the house. One source says William is with Thomson.⁸ The British column halts long enough to drop off 10 wagons and 100 men. Capt. Doyle then continues north with most of his force. The men here tie their horses to the farm’s wagons. They begin emptying the McIntyres’ barn of oats; stealing pigs, ducks, and chickens; and rummaging through the house.

Bees Bring Bigger Stings

Continue along the trail. This area became a gold mine in 1835, worked until the 1880s. Depressions along the trail are the remains of exploratory pits.

Just before the trail turns back toward the parking lot, stop by a group of boulders on your left. Face the lot.

Thomson and his men, including Frances Bradley, sneak along the stream past the foragers, and then come up to the top of the ridge from behind you. This places them “60 or 70 steps” away from the Loyalists on the far side of the house, well within musket range.⁹ The men spread out, putting at least 10 feet between each, to make themselves seem like a larger group. They take positions behind trees and large rocks like these at your feet, prepare their guns, and await their chance.

Early sources differ on what happens next. One says a Tory knocks over one of the farm’s beehives, likely made from a hollow log, while trying to steal it.¹⁰ The Loyalists come under attack from the bees, prompting laughter from an officer as his men scatter. Another version says nothing of the hive, instead stating a sentinel near this spot heard the Whigs and became “alarmed.”

Either way, Thomson shoots the sentinel, which causes the rest of his men to open fire at the distant raiders.¹¹ Two aim at the same man; when the first hits him, the second finds another target. Most of the targets fall.

Some of the Loyalists run for their horses, while a few begin to shoot back. Many of the Whigs are already retreating. Thomson apparently has a rifle, more accurate at a distance: His second shot wounds the officer in command, who was standing in the barn doorway, 400–500 feet away. The man dies two days later.

Turn around and look at the hillside.

The Patriots scurry down the slope. Doyle has heard the firing from a half-mile down the road, and fears he is under attack from a larger Patriot force. Likely for the same reason, the Tories here don’t pursue Thomson. Doyle orders a retreat back in this direction.

Thomson’s men continue down the branch that brought them here, marked now by a line of greenery at the bottom of the slope to your left. It feeds into today’s McIntyre Creek.¹² They follow the creek to where the road fords it, and take a position on a high bank some 40 yards away. When the front of the column is in range, they fire a volley, and then retreat.

Some of Doyle’s men spread along the opposite bank and began shooting at the Whigs. The Tories have brought war dogs, and let them loose. According to one man on the scene, “‘The dogs came on the trail of these retreating men, and the leading one sprung upon the heels of a man who had just discharged his rifle. A pistol shot laid him dead, and the other dogs, coming up to him, paused, gave a howl, and returned.’”¹³ (One man’s daughter said the bitten-man’s brother shot it.¹⁴) Some of the cavalry chase Thomson’s men a short distance along both sides of the creek. But the woods make pursuit difficult, and they break off without catching any.

Turn back around, walk to the house site, and look toward the parking lot.

Some of the Tories form a line of battle as a rear guard. The larger force continues past toward Charlotte. But horses pulling the wagons are killed somewhere in the distance, which blocks the road and adds to the confusion. After the wagons finally get through, the rear guard is ordered back and the last of the Loyalists disappear over the ridge ahead of you.

Their danger is not over, however. The delay allows more Patriot farmers to arrive and line the road. They keep to the woods and pick away at the exposed Loyalists. The Tories retreat headlong to Charlotte, a scene reminiscent of the British retreat from Lexington and Concord (Mass.) in 1775. A newspaper of the time reported the wagons “‘drove back with such precipitation (speed) that… many of their horses fell dead in the streets on their return.’”¹⁵

A prisoner confined in the county courthouse, at the intersection of today’s Trade and Tryon streets, overhears an officer ask one of those with the column if they had run into Patriots. The man swears “‘they found a rebel in every bush.’”

For their trouble, the force has gathered at most two wagon-fuls of food.¹⁶